I see it every time I'm at the grocery store. A mom with three kids in tow, aimlessly wandering up and down the aisle without a list, tossing whatever she sees into her cart. Her grocery costs must be outrageous. I know I once spent way too much at the grocery store but I've learned to pare it down. Now I spend about $40 a week at the grocery store. Here are my Top Ten Grocery Shopping Tips.
1) Shop alone. When my kids are with me, I spend about $8 more at the grocery store. When my husband is with me, forget it. All thoughts of sticking to a budget are thrown out the window. When I am alone, I spend more time comparison shopping, looking through my coupons and hunting for bargains.
2) Make a list. Shopping with a pre-planned list is vitally important to staying on track. I go through the cupboards, fridge and freezer and jot down all the essentials we need. I plan meals ahead of time. I'm not so organized as to say that Monday is chicken, Tuesday is tacos and so on. I just make sure I have the ingredients on hand to make a week's worth of meals so I can prepare dinners without having to first send my husband to the store (another $20.00 wasted in his impulse buys). I look through the grocery store ads to see what is on special this week and, if there are some good deals, I plan my meals around them. I also include seasonal items whenever possible since you can usually get these items cheaper than if they are out of season. For me, I found that I was making a list but not really looking at it at the grocery store. Instead, I was pulling this and that off the shelves. Whatever sounded good. So now I write in big letters "BUY ONLY WHAT IS ON THIS LIST" across the top of my list. It serves as a visual reminder that I have a budget to stick to and, perhaps this isn't the best week to splurge on shrimp.
3) Shop at discount grocery stores. In my area of the country, we have the Aldi's and the Sav-A-Lot chains of discount grocery stores. I've found that I really do save a lot at Sav-A-Lot and most of the time, I do a better job bagging my own groceries that the bag boy at the full-service grocery store. These stores carry some brand name
